Why not challenge these K12 kids to submit a doodle in the 2016 Doodle4Google contest going on right now? The national winner has her or his doodle featured on the Google homepage for a day and also receives a $30, 000 scholarship and a bunch of other cool prizes including a $50,000 technology award for schools and non-profits (and what all could you think of to do with that??).

Source: doodles.google.com

This year the Doodle4Google competition asks youth to illustrate”What I see for the future…” Given the role of the library as a place to encourage curiosity and exploration as well as it being a place of diversity, the theme very well might be a timely and powerful one for libraries to champion with their young users.

The current contest is in the U.S. but it takes place in many other countries at other times during the year. The U.S. contest closes on December 2, 2016 – plenty of time to get the word out to your K12 patrons and their parents. Google also has a bunch of resources to get the creative juices flowing and some pretty cool videos from their own team of Doodlers to inspire youth to imagine, create, share and collaborate to get started on their doodles.

Curious yourself? I may click routinely on the Doodle of the day and have lost myself following the path of links but I never thought to look into the Doodle history till writing about this year’s contest. And here’s an afternoon cup of coffee’s worth of Doodles you might have missed.

About Marijke Visser

As associate director and senior policy advocate, Marijke leads and coordinates all of ALA’s work on E-rate. In addition, Marijke supports the Program on Networks focusing on broadband adoption issues for diverse populations. Marijke also serves as Program Director for OITP’s emerging portfolio on children, youth, and technology.